Descanso Gardens

April at Descanso is spring in full bloom, with color in the landscape, many activities to keep visitors busy and, this year, the opening of the Pasadena Showcase House of Design at Descanso's Boddy House. For more details check www.descansogardens.org. (Unless noted, events are free with Gardens admission. All fees include Garden admission.) Mondays: April 2 to May 7 : A Splash of Watercolor, 1 to 4 p.m. Artist Carole Buss will teach how to preserve all the beauty of spring in watercolor during this six-session class.

Descanso Gardens will host the Descanso Bonsai Society's 33rd annual bonsai show starting today. Raw and completed bonsai plants, tools, pots and related items will be on sale throughout the show, which runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Experts will explain how to create and care for bonsai trees during demonstrations at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Bonsai-related items will be raffled at 3 p.m. Sunday. The show will be held in Van de Kamp Hall at Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive.

James Barrie said it best: "God gave us memory, that we might have roses in December." It is in the winter that we reflect most on the beauty of spring. Gerane Mooney's sixth annual Descanso Gardens exhibit will run through Feb. 2. The show features spring and summer florals and landscapes. The collection of original impressionist oil works are from her distant travels from all over North America, Europe and the British Isles. Early in her career, Gerane experimented with expressions ranging from representational to near-abstract, in due course settling on what is best described as "impressionist with a representational edge."

Joyce Rudolph, Weekend LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE -- Care of camellias and guided walks through the 35-acre Camellia Forest are some of the events planned throughout the month at Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge. The Pacific Camellia Society will sponsor its Camellia Show the weekend of Jan. 13 and 14. Hours are from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. "Jurassic Jungles," a hands-on leaf crafts project for children 6 to 9, will be conducted by Celena Turney from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 13. The fee is $15, $10 for guild members.

Robert Chacon Descanso Gardens is copying a move by the city of Glendale to be more creative in its hiring practices. Descanso will employ goats to clear the hillsides surrounding its property of underbrush that has grown unchecked for more than 60 years. The same type of underbrush-munching goats used on Glendale hillsides will be used by Descanso as part of its plan for a controlled burn of 115 surrounding acres. The goats will arrive in mid-March and stay through April, clearing an abundance of underbrush in the chaparral-covered hills above the gardens.

Robert Chacon Descanso Gardens will ask the City Council Monday to make an exception to a visual pollution law that is preventing it from hanging spring festival banners. Descanso Gardens is appealing to the council the city's denial of its permit request to hang 70 banners on Southern California Edison light poles on Verdugo and Foothill boulevards. The banners would advertise Descanso's Spring Festival of Flowers, which will last eight weeks beginning March 19. City management analyst Gilbert Meyer denied the original application, filed Dec. 3, because of a city ordinance that prohibits organizations from hanging banners on light poles to announce events that are not sponsored or co-sponsored by the city, or for which the city has not donated at least $2,500.

LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE — Summertime at Descanso Gardens will be a little less melodic after the Pasadena Symphony Assn. and Pasadena Pops announced earlier this month that, after 15 years, the summer concert series would be leaving the lush grounds for cheaper pastures. The Concerts Under the Stars series will instead be staged at the Rose Bowl next season, according to the association. The decision is part of a recovery plan to help end the symphony’s next season with a balanced $3.2-million budget as it gradually pays off $800,000 in debt, said Paul Jan Zdunek, chief executive for the Pasadena Symphony Assn.

Descanso Garden's Van de Kamp Hall will be filled with fuchsias for a two-day show and sale by members of the National Fuchsia Society. The show starts Saturday and runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will include nearly 1,600 plants of various sizes. Trees and hanging baskets will be available, and society members will share secrets on how to grow fuchsias. Descanso Gardens is at 1418 Descanso Drive. Admission is $6 for adults, $4 for students and seniors, $1.50 for children 5 to 12. Children under 5 are admitted for free.